Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Good morning!
>>The good news is that he didn’t bite at the grass. That’s a big success, IMO.>>
Yes! That is a big win for sure!!!
One thing that I can think can help even more is if you are more predictable with exactly what is going to happen and how to earn reinforcement. Rather than doing a whole bunch of different things rolled together, work one game – then have a transition to the next thing, almost like narrating a story 🙂 At the beginning of the video, I was not entirely sure what he needed to do to earn reinforcement. Was it the pattern game, or something with the bowl, or? He got rewarded for a lot of different things but it was a little muddy, so when you took off to run the sequence he was not entirely engaged or in the optimal state… so you got a zoomie. Good info!!
So, you can use a more systematic approach to getting into the first sequence. An example would be:
Playing a pattern game closer to the fence line and people (on leash, as that is how it will be played at a trial) – if he has trouble finding treats in the grass, you can reward from your hand. He will let you know when you can go to the next step, by either NOT wanting to look at the fence or people at all, or doing a quick eye flick at them and then looking right back at you.
When he signals engagement with the pattern game, you can then transition to the next game – such as volume dial tricks in front of the first jump. Do 4 or 5 for rewards- if his responses are fast and snappy, then he is ready for the next step! He did seem to enjoy the toy play with his flirt pole, so you can totally use that here too! Using both the toy and the treats can help center the arousal.
>>>I don’t like my choice of just taking off to do the sequence. I should have told him what was next.
I agree – he was like, “wait, what?” LOL!!! And he was not ready for the sequence when you did that. Telling him how to earn reinforcement in each step will totally help – predictability is always a good thing 🙂
>> He can line up at my side or between my legs, so we have that in our toolbox, but I was still thinking that I didn’t want to make anything too challenging. >>
Yes! I don’t think those are to challenging. And asking for those can help you know if he is ready for a sequence or not – if he can totally do the line up behavior, then he is good to go! If he cannot… then you can keep tweaking the volume dial to get him into a better state of arousal.
>> I kept the volume dial low because I didn’t want grass eating.
It will take some experimenting to find the sweet spot, but I think he can be more stimulated here, a little ‘higher’ and a food/toy combo can get that, plus some volume dial in front of the jump to try to get an idea of how he feels.
Looking at latency:
The higher latency (slower response) of the trick at 2:09 suggests that his state of arousal was too low in that moment for running a sequence – plus he was eating a treat, looking at you and then you took of and ran at 2:12 . So you can do two things to help him: if you note that he is not as fast or crisp with his responses, then you can move further away from the jump or distraction and ask for a couple more tricks – and change how you reinforce to get more engagement. That can eithe rbe by moving the treat so he chases your cookie hand (not tossing it, but just having him chase your hand for it as you move for a few steps), or you can go to the toy 🙂
When he is running sequences, you can reward for doing the jumps in the middle of the sequence, to build value for being out there on course. In agility, I think we all reward so many things… but not enough rewards for jumps (which is the obstacle the dogs do the most LOL!!) so you can bring lots of rewards with you and reward a lot during the sequence as well. It was hard to see – did he get rewarded in the sequence when you said “yay” at 2:20, or did the reward come at the end 2:34? You can totally reward in the middle of the sequence (with a ball or treat or something fun) and then run back to get the toy 🙂 If he did not get rewarded in the sequence, it was probably too long of a delay for now – we will develop the reward station in coming weeks but for now, he doesn’t need to do full sequences with the reward placed at the end.
Engaged chill looked good! Was he able to do this while other dogs were running too? And it looks like you have a new Instant focus prop 🙂 He was happy to offer behavior on it – be sure to have the treats ready in your hands before you put it down, so he doesn’t watch the treats as much (poor starving dog hahaha). And you can get this game to where you are standing up. And when you are transitioning to another game, remove the IF prop because if it is in the picture, we want him offering on it (that will make more sense when you see the new game with it :))
>> I won’t be renting the field this week because we have a scentwork trial this weekend, but my backyard is finally snow-free, so I can work on things there.>>
You can use the wait time during the scentwork trial to do some of the Instant Focus Part 2 games!
For the home games – try the off leash offered engagement and also the Remote reinforcement combo games, to build up being able to have snappy fun tricks with the treats and toys behind you on the reward station 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
>. had to move inside as the wind chill here is awful.
For real! It has been really windy and cold here too. Ewwwww!!!
Really nice session here! You broke things down nicely and built them back up really well too. He seems to do well with this on both sides.
He is really getting the idea of this (stays are looking good too!) so you can add 2 more levels of challenge:
when working indoors, you don’t really have room for more wings so you can do 2 things with the 3 wings:
– fade out the foot rotation and see if he can do it all wth just upper body/arm changes (this is a good prep for serps and threadles!). You can use lower arms and at first, tiny foot movement – then try low arms and no foot movement. You can totally do this on 2 wings first, then go back to 3 wings.– you can also bring the 3 wings in closer. If these were 5 feet, move to 4.5 feet and if that is fine, move to 4 feet (to prepare for the 4 foot bars he will see eventually!) When bringing the wings in closer, you can start with 2 wings and continue to use arm and foot cues, then build up to 3 wings. For a dog his size, I eventually work this to 3 foot distances to work on super quick lead changes.
When you work outdoors, you can use the 5 foot distance and add a 4th wing and eventually a 5th wing.
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyGood morning!
I think there was a TON of lovely stuff here on these sequences!!>> This was her first time at 10, besides the jump height video.
Yes, she needed to sort some things out at 10. When bringing the bars up to height, you can start with just one bar at 10 inches (and easy bar) and the rest at the previous height. Then if that goes well, the next session has 2 bars at 10, and so on – that way the taller height is introduced gradually so she doesn’t have to think about EVERY bar. You can also ‘lock in’ the bars so she doesn’t rehearse dropping them as she is sorting out all the things.
Also, with the taller bars – most of the dropped bars happened when you were going really fast and not super connected. So be sure to be ultra-connected so she doesn’t get distracted by the chase mode of trying to see the connection at high speed.
I think her responses to the verbals were really strong! The wraps, lefts and rights all looked lovely 🙂 especially with some of the soft turns coming as turn aways/rear crosses! A couple of the wraps were a little wider but I think that was partially the line on the course, and partially because you were saying “YES!”. So… stop saying yes LOL! The yes marker provides no information about what is coming next, so she drifts a bit wide to look at you and wait for the next cue.
Her stays are also looking GREAT!!! Happy dance! Because she starts in a down position, move her another 3 or 4 feet back from jump 1 so she ha more time to get up from the down and organize her takeoff. If she is too close to jump 1, she doesn’t quite have enough time to be organized for the 10 inch bar.
My only other suggestion is to make sure you walk each sequence before you run it with her, to get your words and lines correct – there were a couple of spots with the wrong word, or the wrong line (like back to the tunnel) so she was like “what the heck?” LOL!!! Things happen really fast during her runs, so a walk through for each sequence will keep you well-prepared for the speed 🙂
Great job here! Let me know what you think!
TracyOuch! Poor little guy! I am sure he will be better really quickly 🙂 And you can put some stuff in the motorhome for on-the-road training next week 🙂
T
Good morning!
On the serps versus threadles –
I agree that clarifying arm use will help. I use a dog side arm for serps and a cross arm for threadles, but also the dog needs to know what a threadle is otherwise we end up having to rotated our feet too 🙂 So for now, isolate the threadles from the serps so you can teach the threadles so that the word is stronger and she is not tempted to serp (you can angle the jump to help her. She is reading positional cues too – like at the beginning, threadling at :02 because you were in the threadle gap even though the verbals said serp. So that is another way to clarify for her -the threadle verbal can predict the positional cue of you being in the gap, versus the serp where you are between the uprights of the serp jump.The sequences went well!
>> I’d like a better turn on her wraps which I know she’s capable of doing. Am I late?>>
Looking at the wraps – I think she is wanting you to do perfect handling and not processing the verbal as well without. An example would be at :55 or 1:45 where you had the decel and the rotation happening nice and early, so her turns were strong.
Compare that to :39 and 2:00 for example, where you were theoretically on time with the verbal but late with the physical cue, so she was wide on the turn.2 ideas for you to help that:
first, set this up with wider spacing between the jumps. She was one-striding it and considering that she is not a big dog at all… she should have enough spacing that she has to 2 stride the distances between jumps 1 and, and 4 and 5, for example. The timing of the cues will be the same (as she is taking off or over the bar of the previous jump) but that extra stride will give hr a chance to organize the collection. There were a couple of reps where she was trying but ran out of room to get it done (:39, 1:33, 3:06 for example).
Second – move the distraction jump in closer (3 or 4 feet from the wrap jump), so if she doesn’t collect, she will end up going over it. That will really clarify criteria because she can’t be wide and still get rewarded. Also – handle less 🙂 As you move up the line, give the verbal nice and early but don’t FC until AFTER you see the collection. Use the FC as part of the reward: when she collects, you FC and run away to reward. Reward the collection immediately – the collection rewards here were generally after the tunnel, which builds more tunnel love but not necessarily wrap love. When you did a BC to wrap the other side of the bar, you rewarded right away which is correct for building wrap love.
The left and right turns were good AND rewarded in the moment (rather than along the next line) When cuing these and rewarding, you can add more motion and throw The toy before she looks back at you.
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi! I am super happy with her success with this game – it is really hard and she is doing really well. Bear in mind that it is a coordination game (like backing up and other body awareness games) so it will take multiple sessions before she looks fluid and fluent 🙂 Yes, keep using the big handling moves 🙂
On the 2nd rep, you figured out how quick you needed to be and then you were really strong for the rest. When she struggled a bit on the 4 wings, you did a great job breaking it back down to 3 wings then back out to 4 wings.
She did seem to think the step the right to begin was harder and was not releasing immediately – she needed a moment to gather her thoughts LOL!! But she did figure it out and got it! Yay!>>So, I’m not sure if I need to do something different.
I think she just needs more experience with this bizarre game LOL!! You can warm her up with some back chaining – 2 wings for a couple of reps, then 3 wings, then all 4 wings. And maybe stick to one side, one variable per session: she starts on the side of the wing with her right shoulder to the wing and you are facing her on the same side, for a full session. Then you can put yourself on the opposite side for the next session – this might be easier than changing things up in one session.
But overall, I am happy with this! It is a really challenging skill and she is doing a great job!
Tracy
Hi! This is going well, she was responding to each cue really nicely!
On the serps – she did well here!! Yes, you can open up your upper body to the bar (belly button to the bar :)) as you move past like with Fritzi, so you won’t need to rely on being way ahead.And you can add more running: can she serp even with you waaaay ahead?
For the threadles – this is an incredibly hard game and I am happy that she was able to go back and forth between the serps and threadles here!!! It is possible that she is is reading the threadles when you decelerate or lean backbut not when you run, when she was on your right? I think dog-on-left was smoother, as you also noticed: At 1:15 with her on your left side, you kept moving and used a bit of opposite arm and that helped. So stay in motion so you don’t always need to be in the gap between the start wing and the jump or leaning back 🙂
>>Sometimes I’m exaggerating and leaning back
Yes, and it feels weird LOL And it might cause you to decelerate when you don’t want to. So rather than swinging that threadle arm back, maybe trying dropping it lower or shaking it. I also had trouble with being able to show the threadle arm AND keep moving, so now I use a cross arm for all threadles. The cross arm opens up my upper body while I continue to run forward 🙂
Nice work here! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
>.e will try out this routine in class tonight and see how it goes.
Keep me posted! Get video!
>> Did you also build in rest time so he could have a good snooze in his crate (or in the car)?
>>He won’t rest or sleep amid all the excitement or in the car until we head home which took a long time to get to that point. That’s why I take him outside for him to chill out. He slept really hard once he was home. He also won’t relax in crate so I was thinking of taking a raised bed to class so he can chill away from the action. He likes his platforms and will lie down on those.>>Yes – a bed or platform would be great! I have more ideas coming for ‘chill’ coming tonight!
>>I’m sure he will be fine without the pockets, me I’m not so sure.
Ha! That cracks me up 🙂 Leave the pockets ringside and see what he does.
>>So at the end of his run should I leash him before going to the remote treat? What if my instructor has feedback, should I wait and then go to the treat?
So for tonight, in a training setting, you can have treats in your pants pockets but the training pockets will be ringside – if you run the full course, you can go grab the treat from your training pockets then come back for instructor feedback. Or, if you stop in the middle, reward from your hand or clam, get instructor feedback, then keep going. The training pockets outside the ring are just meant to help establish his reward station for now – but it is not the only place he will get rewarded for now.
Tracy
Hi!
>>Re-set point – Will do….do I need the pool noodle still?
For the fist jump? Yes, that will help her set up her striding. The 2nd jump can be the bar that goes up.
>>Smiley face – such good feedback that I suck at.
You don’t suck at any of it! Video just lets us see the tiny details that will answer her questions. You are doing a wonderful job 🙂
TracyHi! Lots of good work here!
Left looked good turned towards you and turning away from you! right looked good turning towards you. And he had a much harder time turning away, as you mentioned – but you did get it! You aren’t doing anything wrong – it is just harder. Y you can jumpstart the behavior a bit by using a lure aka a placed reinforcement on those right turns. You can put an empty food bowl out between bumps 2 and 3, and when he turns away towards it, toss a cookie into it. That can help him really get the idea and coordination for the right turns away from you. Then we can pu tthe bowl past bump 3, then fade it out entirely.Find the jump looked great – when you are ahead, keep moving, I think you were kind of waiting for him. That looked like decel to him, so he was preparing to turn, He had not trouble when you moved it further away. And since he did so well… you can run more 🙂 You can be jogigng/running on all of these now – when you want him to drive ahead, run closer to the tunnel so you don’t end up ahead of him (stay connected like you did here, it was lovely!)
>> I think I was tossing the reward late. >>
yes, you can throw sooner – when you see him looking at the jump, go ahead and throw it rather than waiting for him to get between the uprights.
Great job on these! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
I liked the standing near you and petting like at :24, and the leg hug at the end (as long as he can do it from a sit and not a ‘sit pretty’ because we don’t want him to have to work his core like that for long stretches before a run). Both of these behaviors did seem like actual chill 🙂
He was VERY hot here, so standing on you didn’t seem comfy. And it is OK to let the dog watch – but unless I ask the dog to get excited, I don’t want them getting nutty for a dog running, if that makes sense. So for example, I will whisper things like “are you ready?” when having my dog watch the fun 🙂 but only as long as they don’t get crazy and disruptive while watching. Perked up – yes. Insane? No LOL!Great job here with LEGIT CHILL!!!!
Tracy
Hi!
>>How does this look to you? I definitely said way too many ‘Yes!’-es again instead of just “Get it!” That is SUCH a hard habit for me to break.
This is looking good! You can give bigger indications of where you want him to be using big handling cues, so you can be right next to the wings. You were tending to change your position to help him but feel free to use big arm and leg motions for now. He had a harder time pulling into you, so you can use your feet more to do a front cross right next to the wing.
And yes, keep reminding yourself to use a get it rather than a yes – totally relatable about how hard it is to break the habit!Serp versus wrap
On the serps, you can be a lot closer to the jump – you should be able to casually reach out and touch the jump with a bent elbow. That also means the MM should be closer to the wing of the jump.On the FCs – this is a front versus back discriminations, so you can use a little more eye contact and you can be closer to to the start wing to get his attention off the MM. I think the draw of the MM made things harder, so when you do convince him to do the FC you can reward from your hand. And then do a complete front cross so he stays no your other side all the way to the MM – so if he starts on your left, do a full FC so he ends up on your right, so you are between him and the jump and he goes to the MM from your right side (you were doing another FC to get him back to your left side).
Minny pinny – he is a definite lefty on this game!
On the warm up – was he able to go all the way around to the right, without you moving, starting from your left side with you kind of in the center of the bump?You can help him out a few different ways: the first thing I would do is lure it by placing the toy out where you want him to go, before sending him into it. That can totally help him understand it, then we can fade the lure 🙂 Also, you can use a bit of a hand cue to get him turned away. And also you can start him between 1 and 2, so he turns away just for turn and 3. When you were stepping into it, you were stepping a bit too much so he took it as a cue to go to the easier side (left turns). Also, you can help him by tossing the reinforcement so it lands between the 2nd and 3rd bump. That way he only has to make one right turn, not several.
It is pretty normal that a dog finds one side very easy and the other side very hard 🙂 Try the ideas for breaking it down and see how he does!
Great job! Let me know what you think!
TracyHi!
This was a really interesting video, showing us how he struggles when the reinforcement is nearby but not necessarily accessible – he finds that very distracting!He was great with the line u game in the very beginning. My only suggestion is to lead out and throw the reward back to him to specifically reinforce that lovely, focused stay (rather than release into the course). More on that coming with the new games tonight.
Things got really interesting when you moved the table of goodies to right near the start line – he could no longer do the line up game! Totally interesting! He was perfect until the reward station moved nearby – so add in that table of goodies to your training a lot more often, sitting outside the ring or near the start or exit gate, so he gets used to working with it nearby. When he was facing the camera in his stay, note how he was looking at it. And then he went to it instead of engaging with the toy. Big distraction!
When you had treats with you and moved further away, it was not a problem. So this reward station is where you will want to work your remote reinforcement games, in those very small steps so you can get him happy to engage and work even with no cookies in your hands. When you had the cookies with you, it was not as hard but you can see it was a really distracting thing. Looking at it from a trial perspective: the reward station is outside the ring and you have no reward IN the ring, so he might not be able to run as well.
>>Wondering when to try to decrease the food need to rewatch your video today. I guess one thing he is focused on me, but I also have the food. >>
The tricks and line up games can have cookies in your pocket for now rather than you hands, but I think the most important game to tackle is the remote reinforcement game using the little table of goodies you had here as the reward station. That will really help him understand how to earn reinforcement when the cookies are not in your hands 🙂
Great job! Let me know what you think!
Tracy
